The Queen flew into controversy today as she arrived in Australia where her representative, Governor-General Peter Hollingworth, is embroiled in an alleged child sex cover-up.

Dr Hollingworth greeted the Queen at Adelaide International Airport. Asked by a reporter if he had embarrassed the Queen, the governor-general replied: "We are very honoured to receive her in Australia."

Later, at a ceremonial welcome outside Government House in Adelaide city centre, a crowd of some 15,000 people saw the Queen and her governor-general walk side by side.

Protesters pledged to follow Dr Hollingworth during the visit, but said they were not targeting the Queen.

The accusations centre on Dr Hollingworth when he was the Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane in the 1990s and his handling of child sex claims against clergy in Queensland.

"We need a governor-general who is a social caretaker and a moral leader," protester Edith Pringle, 42, said.

A protester, who asked to be identified as Dave and who was himself a child-sex victim within the church, carried white balloons.

"The balloons symbolise child abuse survivors, as a protest to try to force the governor-general to do the honourable thing and resign because of his complicity," said the 47-year-old.

"When these allegations first arose, he tried to hide them and since then he has done nothing to help the survivors of child abuse in any way," the protester added.

Dr Hollingworth, backed by Australia's prime minister John Howard, has refused to resign. But government officials in Canberra fear possible public protests against the governor-general could mar the five-day royal visit, which includes the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting.

Howard, who also greeted the Queen at Government House, said there had been nothing to alter his view that there were no grounds to dismiss Dr Hollingworth, and that he would not change his decision.